The price of maple syrup is nearing a record, as warm winters and high production costs curb output and make the iconic Canadian sweetener a target for thieves.

The price of the breakfast-table treat, made from the sap of maple trees, has climbed 182 percent since the end of 1980, more than crude oil and gold.

"The price is high now because it's a lot more expensive to produce" compared with other sweeteners, said Michael Farrell, maple syrup researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "It's an incredibly labor-intensive process and the technology hasn't kept up with demand."

The price paid to producers in Quebec, where more than three-quarters of the world's syrup originates, rose 0.7 percent to $38.76 per gallon. U.S. production fell 32 percent this year to 1.91 million gallons, according to the Department of Agriculture.

That supply falls short of demand. U.S. syrup consumption rose to 2.7 ounces per person this year from 1 ounce per person in the 1970s, Cornell's Farrell said.

Demand is so high for the pancake topping that people have resorted to theft. Three men were arrested and five others are being sought after syrup was stolen from a Quebec warehouse, according to provincial police.

The process of extracting the sweetener is tedious. Sap is sucked from maple trees via tubes that drip into buckets attached to the tree trunks. The liquid is heated in cabins, known as sugar shacks, where it is reduced into syrup. Forty gallons of sap are needed to make one gallon of syrup.